News

"Newly elected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed the members of his transition team for education — and on it are two people linked to efforts to weaken the teaching of evolution and climate change, among other topics," reportsEducation Week (December 7, 2018).

"An increasing number of Americans believe climate change is occurring, including a majority who now see this issue as a very serious problem," according to the latest Monmouth University Poll. "Scientists have long agreed that climate change is a very serious problem, and it is past time to take action. Now it is clear that a majority of Americans regardless of political party agree," commented Tony MacDonald, the director of the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University.

More than two thirds of Canadians think that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, according to a new poll — but less than half think that creationism should not be part of the public school curriculum.

Writing for Scientific American's blog (November 26, 2018), NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch considered the progress in evolution education in the last half century, from the defeat of Scopes-era bans on teaching evolution through the series of attempts to "balance" evolution with a supposedly scientific alternative to the present day, when "the preferred strategy is now to belittle evolution, while remaining silent about any supposed alternatives."

Writing in the Los Angeles Times (November 18, 2018), NCSE's executive director Ann Reid celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Epperson v. Arkansas overturning bans on teaching evolution — but warned that "teaching evolution is still challenging in many communities in the United States."

A spate of scientifically accurate and pedagogically appropriate teaching materials about climate change is arriving, according to Frontline (November 2, 2018) — hopefully in time to stymie a new propaganda campaign rumored to be under way.